This Ghost Kommando demo set might be my favorite of all of the recent Deathangle Absolution offerings. After first finding out about this Swiss duo on the Nuclear War Now board, I've been growing increasingly obsessed with their music, trying in vain to find more of their stuff online (only a handful of songs have surfaced on sites like Bandcamp and Youtube) and attempting to get their one and only Cd release in stock (also in vain, as the album was released in a limited edition of three hundred copies that was already sold out by the time I tracked it down). I've been eager to get my hands on this reissue of the band's two demos, assembled by the controversial label Deathangle Absolution, and while the total amount of music on here is agonizingly brief, I just can't stop playing 'em. Playing a style of raw, sloppy, punky black metal with epic melodic hooks and a gloriously fuzz-drenched guitar sound, Ghost Kommando have gotten comparisons to bands like latter-day Darkthrone and Canadian black metal/punk experimentalists Akitsa, but when the jangly roar of songs like "Sail The Seas Of Denial" kicks in, it really sounds like an ultra blown-out, low-fi version of Darkthrone playing Dinosaur Jr.'s self-titled Homestead debut, a super catchy, jangly, overdriven blast of vaguely blackened thrash with the ability to suddenly erupt into an incredibly majestic, memorable hook. Their name is apt, too; there's a weird spectral feel to Ghost Kommando's fuzz-drenched roar that comes from the low-fi recording and their quirky songwriting, an almost otherworldly vibe permeating the gloaming haze of their post-punk influenced thrash.

Archaic Pandemonium features the bands first two demo releases from 2009-2010, The Burden of Supremacy and The Rise of Perception, each one roughly thirteen minutes long. The Burden Of Supremacy demo is a glorious low-fi mess of murkly movie samples and rumbling bass noise that gives way to the band's ultra-raw, blackish metal, four songs of galloping metallic power fused with ultra-catchy, almost "poppy" melodies. It's shot through with primitive blastbeat action and a demented vocal delivery that goes from a hoarse blackened shriek into a weird dramatic moan that sort of resembles Ian Curtis from Joy Division drowning in echo. The hooks are seriously infectious, every song's got 'em; bits of gloomy jangle torn out of stumbling speed metal riffage, weird sing-a-long vocal melodies suddenly coming in over some super-catchy blown-out jangle, and then it ends with the weird, industrialized hypno-drum workout / noise blowout of "Folterkammer".

The Rise Of Perception demo also has four songs, opening with the bright, jangly roar of "Sail the Seas of Denial", the guitars cranked into an overdriven gain-drenched roar that really has that Mascis-like feel, the hooks super catchy and super distorted, while the drums blast and rumble deep in the mix, hurtling at Motorhead-style speed through the murky low-fi grit and fuzz. Those deep gothic vocals are back, crooning over the speedy, punk-tinged blasts of raw thrash with those croaking vocals suddenly shifting into that doom-laden moan, the songs suddenly breaking down into stretches of killer rocking goth-punk, washes of dark guitar crashing over the static-soaked thrash, bringing us finally to Ghost Kommando's awesome closing anthem "Blood and Smoke", the catchiest song of them all.

It's a strange sound that Ghost Kommando have come up with, they definitely don't sound quite like anybody else I can think of. Though their music is so incredibly raw and low-fi and will probably turn off a lot of listeners accustomed to a bit more fidelity in their underground metal, this stuff is pretty passionate, and certainly catchy as hell. The Archaic Pandemonium tapes come in a molded vinyl case with a Xeroxed black and white insert, and is limited to two hundred copies.

Thanks again for all the massive support we received during the last few years here or elsewhere, it's heavily appreciated and keeps us motivated to surpass ourselves with the next LP, which will be the direct continuation to "Paramount" (to be recorded during 2014). Your loyalty will be rewarded.

And to the cowardly maggots who tried to slander or deny us throughout the last 13 years: We're glad you feel offended and will dance at your graves, as you will perish and be forgotten soon like all the others before you - while we'll still be standing and continue our path stronger than ever.